Today, Victor Okoh Boniface exorcised the ghost of missing out on the recent AFCON with the Super Eagles when he inspired Bayer Leverkusen to their first Bundesliga championship in their 120-year history.
The 23-year-old striker was devastated when he suffered a major abductor injury in Super Eagles training on the eve of the AFCON, where a lot was expected of him.
He therefore had to endure a four-month injury layoff.
Victor Boniface celebrating with Alonso and the team dancing to a Burna Boy tune 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
— SportsDokita (Odogwu ☝️) (@Sports_Doctor2) April 14, 2024
Victory sweet Abeg pic.twitter.com/BBaGT6yxK4
His promising career had already suffered major injury setbacks.
In 2019, a knee injury kept him out of a sub-regional qualifying tournament in Niger for the U20 AFCON.
And soon after he signed a pro contract with Norwegian club Bodo/Glimt, he suffered a career-threatening ACL injury.
He will again suffer another ACL a year after the first.
On Thursday, he marked his comeback with a stoppage time goal for Leverkusen to take a 2-0 home win advantage to London against West Ham in the quarterfinal of the UEFA Europa League.
Today, the boy from the military barracks of Akure celebrated his first start of 2024 with the go-ahead goal for his club to trounce Werder Bremen to land a historic Bundesliga title.
In his debut season in Germany, this complete striker has scored 11 goals and made nine assists in 18 Bundesliga appearances.
He has also netted five times in his favourite UEFA Europa League, where his exploits had first alerted Leverkusen to his star quality.
Leverkusen for long were associated with unwanted nicknames like ‘Neverkusen’ and ‘Vicekusen’ for always been the bridesmaid and never the bride of German football.
They thus ended an 11-year stranglehold by Bayern Munich.
They also remain unbeaten in 43 matches in all competitions.
Besides a potential Europa League triumph, they will also take on Bundesliga 2 side Kaiserslautern for the German Cup next month in Berlin.
Their Coronation Sunday is real, but there could yet be more victory parties this season with Victor Boniface, their bargain signing from Belgium.
With additional reporting by Aboluwade God’s Treasure AGT
